{I
wrote this for a friend who wanted a welcome speech. He was a
sophomore and the event was a fresher's party in college WRITTEN
sometime in 2003
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
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I
would like to raise a toast to all the new faces in here. New faces
that we don’t know till now but would wish to know. The
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same new
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faces
that once belonged to us an year ago. The same new faces that, over
ashort period of time, will no more be, 'NEW' faces. But
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faces they are now to us, and yes ‘new’ faces.
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Well,
I speak on behalf of all the second year students here. Just a few
lines of how we all feel at this juncture. Here I go.
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Newness or novelty has been intriguing and fascinating to man since the Neanderthal times. Novelty for us is excitement and
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exuberance,
surprise and science, cheerfulness and joy, hope and happiness,
boldness and buoyancy, positive ness and passion. But
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men as we all are, novelty to us also means risk, unfamiliarity, uncertainty, fear, doubt and disturbance.
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In
the same token, the old and the established stands for ‘the familiar
and comfortable’, ‘knowledgeable and therefore able’,
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‘mature and
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therefore
trustworthy’,‘rugged and therefore reliable.’ But all this goes with
accusations of ‘stagnation and staleness’,‘out
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-of-date and
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outmoded ness’ and ‘the slow and the stumped'.
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What
I wish to express using all the ‘adjectives’that I used is that these
new faces in here, our juniors for the coming year
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, represent to us
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the
same hope and challenge as new players in a cricket team or new
twists in a good story. And we, as seniors,should ideally be the
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matured bunch, a bunch of guys and gals they could trust and depend upon.
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Together, we can make a terrific team. You, a brand new Ferrari and we, the sparking black, Ford Model T.
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